Social networks and spin glasses

Abstract The networks formed from the links between telephones observed in a month's call detail records (CDRs) in the UK are analyzed, looking for the characteristics thought to identify a communications network or a social network. Some novel methods are employed. We find similarities to both types of network. We conclude that, just as analogies to spin glasses have proved fruitful for optimization of large-scale practical problems, there will be opportunities to exploit the statistical mechanics of the formation and dynamics of social networks in today's electronically connected world. Keywords: spin dynamicsglassorder Acknowledgements This work was initiated during SK's summer visit to the MIT Media Lab and its Human Dynamics group during 2010, and continued in summer 2011. At the Hebrew University, SK and AK have enjoyed the support of the LAWA project, an EC collaborative research project (number 258105) on “Longitudinal Analytics of Web Archive Data.” MC is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0905645. AP is partially supported the ARL under Agreement W911NF-09-2-0053, and by AFOSR under Award Number FA9550-10-1-0122.